^o. 






^^^ 







^■ 









^ '^^0^^ :^ 



» ^0 







V v,^^ y^%iA^ v./ /^ife\ ^^.,^^ .*i!^#A% \ 



\r\^ 









.0" c»"*»^ "o. 




.^* .-^ 



"-oV" 






V« 



<». • 



»^ .•:^'. % 






'bV" 



^ «> 









.* .'.^SSC^', ^^^^^« ..J(j|e^^„ %^^,i^' /JJIfe', %^^^^ :'M£^', --^ 






V-^' 






















•;. °^ ,-)' ..'j 



'oK 










.^ . o - . - "-^^ 



:- "-^Ao^ /, 
























<^ 'o.-i* ^0^ "o. -''"::^T»'.v'v <^. '--'"' j.^^"" ^^, "'VvT* x<^ 



'^-. 









v-^^ .. 







^ * o * o ' , ^ 






.* 'if^^'. v./ /.^nfe--, v,^* .-isifc^'. %„/ /Jte-. ^ 










.*"• 







LINCOLN IN WISCONSIN 



BY 

JULIUS E. OLSON 




Reprinted from the Wisconsin Magazine of History 
Volume TV, Number 1, September, 1920 



LINCOLN IN WISCONSIN 




BY 

JULIUS E. OLSON 





r^ 



-j-*^'-^ 



Reprinted from the Wisconsin Magazine of History 
Volume IV, Number 1, September, 1920 



"^040 1 (^ 






LINCOLN IN WISCONSIN 
Julius E. Olson 

In treating this subject of Lincoln in Wisconsin I shall 
give but little time to Lincoln's participation in the Black 
Mawk War of 1832, as that phase of his life has been ade- 
quately presented by others. I desire mainly to call particu- 
lar attention to the fact that Lincoln was in the state at that 
time as a soldier, and hence not at liberty to roam about to 
satisfy the natural curiosity of his inquiring mind. He was 
among the first to respond to the call of Governor Reynolds 
for troops to repel the invasion of Black Hawk. Though 
but twenty-three years of age, he was chosen captain of a 
company of militia, reported to have been a "hard set of 
men." In commanding them Lincoln had at least one 
opportunity to demonstrate his courage and his power to 
sw^ay the minds of men, when he appeared as the defender of 
an old Indian who had strayed into camp; the men thought 
him a spy and wanted blood. 

Before getting into Wisconsin Lincoln's company, with 
others, was mustered out ; but not all of these men returned 
to their homes. Lincoln reenlisted on the same day of his 
discharge, May 28, and became a private in the Independent 
Spy Company. As such he crossed the state line near 
the site of Beloit on June 30, 1832. For ten days the troops 
pressed northward up the Rock River, finding many traces 
of the Indians, but encountering no warriors. On July 10 
near Fort Atkinson the Company was mustered out by a 
young officer who later was to become famous during the 
Civil War, Major Robert Anderson; Lincoln and his com- 
panions returned home before the battles of Wisconsin 
Heights and Bad Axe brought the war to an end, August 2. 
Lincoln's stay in Wisconsin was but brief, probably about a 
fortnight. 



4 Julius E. Olson 

Besides giving Lincoln an exciting though bloodless 
outing, and an opportunity to test his mettle as a man, this 
war brought him to the notice of Major John F. Stuart, a 
lawyer of Springfield, who befriended him as a student of 
law and invited him in 1837 to become his law partner. 

Lincoln's second visit to Wisconsin has been veiled in 
more or less mystery. After a record in popular tradition of 
nearly half a century, an account of it appeared in the 
History of Washington and Ozaukee Counties published in 
1881 by The Western Historical Company. This is a 
pretentious and seemingly reliable volume of 763 pages, over 
three hundred of which are devoted to the general history 
of the state, and includes among its contributors such well- 
known names as C. W. Butterfield, the historian. Professor 
T. C. Chamberlin, State Geologist, Dr. P. R. Hoy, Profes- 
sor Edward Searing, State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, Professor W. W. Daniells, and Professor Roland 
D. Irving. These names induce faith in that part of the 
work relating to the counties under special consideration, 
though the name of the compiler is not given. 

The passage relating to Lincoln appears in the history of 

Port Washington, Ozaukee County, and reads as follows •} 

The first dwelling house built in the village was erected by Gen. 
Harrison in 1835. It is still standing, apparently in a good state of 
preservation. It is a little story-and-a-half frame building, gable end, 
the sills resting on the ground. A partition divides the first floor into 
two apa rtments, and also the upper or half story. It was at this house 
that the first votes of the town were polled. This old and time-worn 
structure has become one of the sacred relics of the past, commanding 
a prominent place in the history of the town of Port Washington, not 
only on account of the relation it bears to the first white settler of the 
village, but because it once served as a shelter to one of America's 
greatest statesmen. It may be of interest to mention the fact that the 
great and martyred President, Abraham Lincoln, during his days of 
roughing it, once walked from Milwaukee to Sheboygan, and stopped 
a night in this old house. After the defeat of the Merrimac by the 
Monitor, Mr. Lincoln, in company with some of his Cabinet officers, 
visited Fortress Monroe to get a practical knowledge of the fort. While 

» P. 508. 



Lincoln in Wisconsin 5 

viewing the works, desiring some information, he approached an officer, 
who proved to be Capt. Beger, from Port Washington. "Well, mj' 
man," said Lincoln, "where are yon from?" "Port Washington," 
replied the Captain. "Fort Washington — let me see: that is in Wis- 
consin, about twenty-five miles north of Milwaukee, is it not?" The 
Captain answered that it was. "1 stopped there over night once," 
said the President; "just name over some of the men Avho lived there in 
the early days." The Captain proceeded to name over quite a number, 
finally mentioning that of Harrison. "Harrison, that is the man!" 
said Mr. Lincoln. "I remember him well." He then walked ofi' to 
join his escort, leaving Capt. Beger very much elated to think that his 
town had been honored by the presence of so great a man. 

This General Harrison was not a Harrison of national 
fame. His name was Wooster Harrison, though familiarly 
termed "General" Harrison by the old settlers. He was a 
native of New York; the history we have cited says :^ "What 
he lacked in education was supplied by a wonderful gift 
of natural wit. His reputation for story-telling extended 
throughout the whole of eastern Wisconsin. . . . He was 
a man much sought after by the early settlers, when any 
great gathering was to be held, to create mirth for the 
crowd." 

It is not strange that Lincoln remembered him well. 

The record of the county history is, in some details, 
supplemented by an interview furnished by Harry W\ Bo- 
lens, ex-mayor of Port Washington, which appeared in the 
Milwaukee Daily A^ews, during the year of the Lincoln 
Centenary, when so many new incidents of Lincoln's career 
came to light. The interview refers to the story as told in 
the county history, but gives the additional, though inciden- 
tal, information that Lincoln's visit was "some time between 
1835 and 1840 — the exact year is not known; he visited 
Sheboygan, but concluded that place had no futiu-e before 
it. He returned to Port Washington and stopped there for 
two days, during which time he arranged with General 
Harrison for the rent of quarters for his law office. This 
was in the fall of the year, and the arrangement was that 

'^ P. 542. 



6 Julius E. Olson 

Mr. Lincoln should return in the spring and take possession 
of his quarters. In the spring, however, the floods put a 
quietus on all travel — the West was fairly afloat in the 
freshet, and the heavy rain storms kept up until late in 
the summer. Under these conditions Mr. Lincoln decided 
to locate elsewhere and later sent his regrets to General 
Harrison." 

Harry W. Bolens is the son of an enterprising and well- 
known newspaper man; he was therefore in a position to 
hear much of such traditional history as Lincoln's visit to 
Port Washington. He is one of the leading business men of 
Port Washington, has been its mayor, and is much inter- 
ested in local history. 

Now the question arises: Can these local traditions in 
any way be verified or corroborated.'^ To try to do so is the 
object of this paper. 

In the first place, the statement that Captain Beger had 
talked with President Lincoln is not lightly to be cast 
aside. Captain Beger was born in Germany in 1841, came 
to Wisconsin with his parents in 1846, enlisted in the army 
in October, 1864, and served as a noncommissioned officer 
until the end of the war, when he returned to Wisconsin. 
Mr. Bolens writes me under date of March 24, 1920: "I 
knew Captain Beger, who conversed with Lincoln, and he 
told me the story many times." 

Although tradition does not know the year of Lincoln's 
visit to Port Washington, it reports that he was there in the 
fall. This, we shall see, is significant. 

The matter of the weather preventing Lincoln's return 
to Pqrt Washington seems suspicious. But the records kept 
by officers of the United States army at Fort Howard show 
that 1836 was a year of abnormally heavy rainfall, the record 
in the spring and summer being as follows: March, 3.2 
inches; April, 6.37; May, 5.2; June, 3.5; and July, 5. 06. 
This corroborates that part of the tradition relating to the 



Lincoln in Wisconsin 7 

weather and indicates that Lincoln visited Port Washing- 
ton in the fall of 1835. If he saw General Harrison at Port 
Washington he could not have done so in any other season 
of that year, for Harrison did not get to the Port Washing- 
ton region until September 7, 1835. We know definitely 
about Lincoln's whereabouts during the whole of the year 
1835 except during the months of October and November, 
which, in the biographies, are absolutely blank. 

The question now presents itself: Can Lincoln's visit 
to Wisconsin, which tradition as amplified by the records of 
the United States officers at Green Bay places in the fall of 
the year 1835, be dovetailed into his life at New Salem .'^ 
This will lead into an absolutely new phase of the question, 
and though the matter is supported by no such direct and 
definitely reported fact as Captain Beger's interview, the 
circumstantial evidence seems to me to be strong and 
connects the visit with the great tragedy of Lincoln's life — 
the untimely death of Ann Rutledge. This occurred August 
25, 1835. I need not rehearse the details of this "saddest 
chapter in Lincoln's life." It was long suppressed, evi- 
dently out of tender consideration for others, but it is a 
well-known story today. Herndon told it in 1866 in that 
wonderful lecture which he called Abraham Lincoln, Miss 
Ann Rutledge, New Salem, Pioneering, and the Poem.^ He 
told it again in his great work on Lincoln, and others have 
retold it in the form of both history and fiction."* 

In brief, the effect upon Lincoln was overwhelming. It 
caused him to walk the narrow path between sanity and 
insanity. As Herndon puts it in the lecture : "He sorrowed 
and grieved, rambled over the hills and through the forests, 
day and night. He suffered and bore it for a while like a 
great man — a philosopher. He slept not, he ate not, joyed 
not. This he did until his body became emaciated and weak 

' Springfield, Illinois, 1910. 

* See The Soul of Ann Rutledge, by Bernie Babcock, 1919. 



8 Julius E. Olson 

and gave way. His mind wandered from its throne." Then 
later, Herndon has these significant words: ''The friends of 
Mr. Lincoln — men, women and children — begged him to quit 
his home and "place of business. They coaxed and threatened 
him by turns, in order to get him to quit the places and 
scenes of his sorrows and griefs." 

Herndon further records that in September Mr. Lincoln 
was induced to go into the country to spend some time with 
his good friends Bowlin Green and wife and adds that "in 
the space of a week or ten days . . . Lincoln rose up, a 
man once more. ... He got well and bade adieu, for a 
short season, to Bowlin's kind roof and generous hospi- 
tality. ... He went back to New Salem, as thought, a 
radically changed man. He went to New Salem about the 
last of September a.d. 1835." 

Herndon then tells of Lincoln's fondness for the poem 
"Oh, Why Should the Spirit of Mortal be Proud?" and 
concludes his lecture with this sentence: "It was about the 
20th day of October a.d. 1835 that Abraham Lincoln, as he 
wandered and wended his sad and melancholy way over 
hill and dale, gloomily burst forth" — and here follows the 
whole of the poem. 

Now it is to be remarked that that lone date, "the 
20th day of October a.d. 1835," is the only date I can find 
in the Lincoln biographies for the autumn months of Octo- 
ber and November, 1835, and in the setting Herndon gives 
it, it seems strangely discordant and insignificant. 

But even with that menacing obstacle to my argument, 
there was ample time after October 20th, or even before it, 
to have made the journey into Wisconsin under comfortable 
conditions of weather. 

It is not possible in this paper to take up the question of 
the practicable possibility of such a lone trip as early as 
1835, except to call attention to the fact that two years 
earlier the pioneer of Norwegian emigration, Kleng Peerson, 



Lincoln in Wisconsin 9 

walked from Chicago to Milwaukee alone. ^ There was an 
Indian trail from Chicago to Green Bay. 

And why should Lincoln at this time have a desire to 
visit Wisconsin? 

If he was to follow the advice of his friends, as Herndon 
puts it, "to quit the places and scenes of his sorrows and 
griefs," to what better place could he have gone? He had 
seen enough of that region during his brief period of soldier- 
ing to know that it had many attractions. In fact, the Black 
Hawk War was Wisconsin's introduction to the American 
people. "There was an immediate and rapid increase of 
immigration, not only in the mining region but in various 
other parts of what is now Wisconsin, more especially in that 
portion bordering on Lake Michigan."^ Lincoln surely 
knew of this strong trend of immigration." Then he may 
have wanted to see Lake Michigan, particularly as the east- 
ern part of the state was the most accessible. From his 
early experiences with river boats we know that he was fond 
of the water. 

Such was the depth of Lincoln's sorrow after the death 
of Ann Rutledge that he may have thought he could not 
live and labor where she had died. Be that as it majs he 
was well enough in October, 1835, to realize that a change of 
scene would be beneficial. And to support this assumption 
it is possible to cite an analogous case in the life of Lincoln 
where he spoke of the advantage of "a change of scene." 
These are Lincoln's own words, used in a letter to his close 
friend, Joshua F. Speed, dated March 27, 1842. This 
was at a time after "that fatal first of January, 1841," 
when he wrote to his law partner. Major Stuart, in Congress: 
"I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel 

^ At Milwaukee Peerson found only two white men, Solomon Juneau and his brother. 

' History of Washington and Ozaukee Counties (Chicago, 1881), 40. 

^ "Returning troopers praised her soil and fertility. Eastern newspapers exploited 
her inviting opportunities for emigrants. Pamphlet literature furnished travelers* 
guides." Louise P. Kellogg, in Wisconsin Magazine of History, September, 1919, 40. 



10 Julius E. Olson 

were equally distributed to the whole human family, there 
would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I 
shall ever be better, I cannot tell ; I awfully forebode I shall 
not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be 
better, it appears to me. ... I say this because I fear I 
shall not be able to attend to any business here, and a change 
of scene might help me. If I could be myself I would rather 
remain at home with Judge Logan. I can write no more." 
The following summer he visited his good friend Speed in 
his Kentucky home "and was much helped by the change of 
scene. ^ 

I trust that this investigation has fixed the year of 
Lincoln's visit to Port Washington and established the fact 
that it was made in consequence of the great tragedy of his 
life, the death of Ann Rutledge in 1835, "that strange, love- 
ly, heroic, pathetic story, which so many have tried to tell, 
but which still awaits the touch of a master hand."^ When 
that master appears, as he surely will, it will enhance his 
interest in the tale if it may truthfully be added that Lincoln 
sought surcease of his great grief by a visit to the wilds of the 
territory of Wisconsin, and even thought of making his home 
there. 

Lincoln's third visit to Wisconsin was made in 1859, the 
year after the great debates with Stephen A. Douglas. He 
was invited to make an address at the State Fair held in 
Milwaukee September 30, upon the invitation, in Lincoln's 
words, "of the Agricultural Society of the young, prosper- 
ous, and soon to be great State of Wisconsin." On this 
occasion he made a remarkable address on agriculture, 
which in recent years due to the increasing interest in 
scientific agriculture has attracted much attention; for in 
this address Lincoln flashed forth a vision of agricultural 

* Joseph Fort Newton, Lincoln and Herndon (Cedar Rapids, 1910), 16. 

• Ihid.. 12. 



l^J^Kiyt^ ^iX^iyyi^ux^ u^rC.''i^Jj U^-t-c /^ot-^z-o^^ /2'^c^i/L£<~e-ev _ Qpnj:^i.^ 
jt^ ffCfi PC, Ko-eurVH^ OJiUx/nxXje^ /C^h^ i^fCo^ f\yi.(j-au-.<<- /^c^^^ 

A PAGE OF Lincoln's Milwaukee address 



12 Julius E. Olson 

progress that only recently has been realized through our 
great iVmerican agricultural experiment stations. 

This speech was printed in the Milwaukee Sentinel 
the day after its delivery ;^° in the Proceedings of the Agricul- 
tural Society of Wisconsin; and in the C. S. Hammond and 
Company's edition of Lincoln's works, published in 1907. 
It is not, so far as I know, mentioned in any other of the 
biographies. At the time of the Lincoln centenary this 
address was not known to the Agricultural College of the 
University of Wisconsin. Some years afterwards I called 
the attention of the authorities to it, and later a special 
bulletin containing most of the address was published by 
the college for distribution among the farmers of Wisconsin 
as an inspiration to their agricultural efforts. I have at 
present in my possession a page of the manuscript in Lin- 
coln's handwriting used for the Milwaukee address. It was 
presented to Lathrop E. Smith of Madison by a Sentinel 
printer the year the speech was delivered. A facsimile of 
this page accompanies this sketch. The day after the 

'" Considering the reputation that Lincoln had won in his debates with Stephen A . 
Douglas, he received scant editorial mention from the Sentinel on the occasion of his visit 
to Milwaukee in 1859. The paper did, however, print his speech in full, with the comment 
that "it is in every sense a practical and readable effort, and will repay attentive perusal." 

The address made in Beloit was very fully reported, although not verbatim, in the 
Beloit Journal of October 5, 1859. The newspaper report of the Janesville speech is not 
so full. But the details of Lincoln's visit to both Beloit and Janesville are still remem- 
bered by some of the older citizens. 

Although the Milwaukee papers made but slight editorial mention of Lincoln in 
1859, there was fortunately present at his address a newspaper man who did make signi- 
ficant comment. He represented a paper called The Wisconsin Pinery, published at 
Stevens Point. The article was entitled "Old Abe," and runs as follows: "Lincoln 
delivered a short address which he had nicely written out, folded in the Wisconsin, and 
tucked away under his left arm, when I first saw him. His heart and other internal ar- 
rangements are a long way from his head. He looks as if he was made for wading in deep 
water. The women say he is homely, — I say he is handsome. He has a long nose, a 
wrinkled, clean-shaven face, large dark eyes, black eye-brows, a forehead that juts over 
his eyes like a cornice, long and full, sloping up into a wealth of black hair. He looks like 
an open-hearted, honest man who has grown sharp in fighting knaves. His face is swarthy 
and filled with very deep, long thought-Avr inkles. He inspires confidence. His hearers 
feel sure that he will not lead them astray, or fail to make a point if he attempts to. I 
think he is very much like Clay, without the light complexion and fiery enthusiasm. His 
voice is not heavy, but has a clean trumpet tone that can be heard an immense distance. 
Except N. P. Banks, I never heard a man who could talk to a large crowd with such ease. 
The address was a short sweet Lincolnism. He thrust a stiletto into Hammond's 'mud- 
sill' theory. It did not please everybody, I suppose, and therefore it was something 
positive and good." 



Lincoln in Wisconsin 13 

Milwaukee address Mr. Lincoln spoke at Beloit in the 
afternoon and in the city of Janesville in the evening.^^ On 
both occasions he made political speeches. 

" An account of this visit to Beloit and Janesville is given in Wis. Hist. Colls. XIV 
134-35. 



W60 













-oV* .'ii^'. -^o^ !<^M-. -oi?- 



»'. '-^o^ r' 









V<^^ 



v^^ 



R.- «*'\ '-WWs /\ •-^_. 




:. '*.o^ • 














^* '^^ ^ " 



*bv" 



^°-^^. 



•- '^'^Ao^ o, 



'bv" 










WA <.--.^*%0^^ V^!^\^^ ^^f.^.^.G^'' V 



'- '^oV^ 












"oy 
















v^^ 






V-^' 



0^ '^ *'v7r*' /v <, 










^V^^ 








.*'% 



'. « 















'e.. A^ ' *>.V/h:''. % <^^ *^^ 






"o^^- 










'^0' 







- ^ov^ :iM^^^ ^^S ^i^^mS." ^^ciy -'^Mi^^^r '^ 









A 


















^V .0--. -^^ J.V .v..^ ^{» 










WERT 











MMC^ ^Pfii 19K 



'. «^ .1* .>V/k'" >» c*' .•«s*Es'- •e^ A^ .V 



'*^.*'' -UNMi". '>.>%^' .'.Mi^-- •^<.-&'' '^ 



